Fluxblog

Archive for 2007

8/24/07

A Trick Or Two

The Society of Rockets “Guess My Name” – This is life now — everything you do is monitored via some form of surveillance, but you try to keep it out of your mind because if you dwell on it, you start to go crazy, and then the people who can watch you might start to actually pay attention. For a song about the impossibility of becoming invisible to The Man, “Guess My Name” is remarkably calm and relaxed, though maybe I’m just getting that mixed up with a feeling of resignation. (Click here for the Society of Rockets’ MySpace page.)

The Birds of Prey “Love Gone Again” – In 1966, a bunch of teenagers recorded a demo with Joe Meek, but it was never released. They broke up, disappeared, no one noticed. But here it is, this perfectly formed song, a classic oldie that almost no one has ever heard. The fidelity is crap, but the performance is jittery and angst-ridden, and the singer fully commits to his R&B affectations while still sounding like a geeky underdog. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

8/23/07

It’s Not Like Me To Leave A Job Undone

Magik Markers “Last of the Lemach Line” – When I first encountered the Magik Markers, they were opening up for Sonic Youth, and burning through a set that sounded a great deal like that band’s earliest recordings, but with less aggression, and a charismatic vocalist who “shouted the poetic truths of high school journal keepers” like the punk rock girl from “Skip Tracer.” They’ve released a few records in the time since, and though they were interesting, they weren’t very successful in translating their improv-centric aesthetic to a proper studio recording until just recently. On the forthcoming album Boss, they’ve managed to develop discrete, structured compositions without sacrificing the spark of their performances. They dabble in punk and at least two cuts recall the grim atmosphere and gentle, cracked piano-based balladry of Cat Power circa Moon Pix and the Covers Record, but most of the songs are turbulent, gloomy dirges that showcase Elisa Ambrogio’s cryptic lyrics and urgent, emotionally potent vocals. “Last of the Lemach Line” is the most sprawling track on the record, and though it seems to build up to a grand release, it consistently turns sideways or slows to a crawl whenever it feels as though it is about to reach its climax. (Click here for Ecstatic Peace’s Magik Markers page.)

Elsewhere: My new Hit Refresh column is up on the ASAP site with mp3s from Imperial Teen, Home Blitz, and the New Pornographers.

8/22/07

Get Your Snap Snap

Swizz Beatz “Take A Picture” – Swizz Beatz has always made a point of avoiding samples in lieu of writing his own tracks from scratch, so it’s kinda funny that the best track on his debut as a solo artist features a prominent sample from Bill Withers’ 1979 hit “Lovely Day.” Despite self-consciously veering from his established formula, the song is still instantly recognizable as a Swizz Beatz production, mainly for the way he fills out the arrangement’s abundant negative space with ecstatic shouts and hollers that pump up the energy level without derailing the mellow, syrupy groove borrowed from the Withers tune. Like most of his best work, the composition feels simultaneously giddy and relaxed, simulating a state of blissful, unworried confidence. Beatz isn’t much of a rapper, but he’s competent, and his words simply elaborate on the feeling of the track while playing up his vanity, and hinting at a concern that his days of glory are numbered. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

On A Professional Note: My gigs for MTV and the Associated Press are ending soon, and I’m available for freelance and contract work. If any Fluxblog readers have a line on a suitable job – preferably one with benefits – hit the comments or give me a shout at perpetua @ gmail.com. Thanks!

8/21/07

STRIKE MATCH LIGHT FIRE

M.I.A. “Bamboo Banga” – “Bamboo Banga” has an intense beat, but a thin sound that makes the track seem a bit crude and makeshift. It rumbles and shakes, and leaves most of its space open for M.I.A.’s flattened voice, which is so harshly stylized that it sounds as though she’s sharpened it up like a shiv. She often seemed venomous on Arular, but she kicks off Kala with an anthem so acrid and aggressive that it makes the old stuff seem quaint and benign. On the opposite end of the record, she drops her violent front to reveal a compelling blend of vulnerability, desperation, and antagonism on “Paper Planes,” a bittersweet ballad with a chorus mainly comprised of gun shots and cash register sound effects, but the blank-eyed nihilism of “Bamboo Banga” is only intensified, and mutated into a particularly hopeless strain of sorrow. (The most gutting moment of Kala comes when she delivers the line “everyone’s a winner, we’re making our name” like a depressed teenage girl trying to force an enthusiastic smile.) The album finds some small pleasures between these two bookends, but it mostly comes across like a guided tour of our post-globalized planet conducted by an especially bitter and droll docent. Some of it is fun, some of it is sexy, some of it is extraordinarily vicious, and all of it is exciting, erudite, and on point. (Well, maybe not that Timbaland cameo — he sounds so incredibly cheesy contrasted with her caustic rhymes.) (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

8/20/07

The Sweetest Things That I Want To Hear

Uffie “First Love (Demo Version) – The sweetness that Uffie reveals on “First Love” doesn’t contradict her party princess persona, or keep her from indulging in her tendency to contrast the cuteness of her voice with a put-on toughness, but it does make her seem more like a human being and less like a cartoon character. It’s an incredibly sugary song, but it’s also a bit tense and ambivalent, with a track that keeps trying to shrug off its most vulnerable moments by warping either the music or Uffie’s voice. (Click here for Uffie’s MySpace page.)

Monarch “Obituary” – It’s a little early for this song, maybe. It’s chilly and gray and feels a bit like October in New York today, but this is a song for the deep autumn or the early winter, and we’re just not there yet. Very few things make me want to be in school these days, but I can’t shake the feeling that this music would be slightly improved by the context of hearing it on the way to class. It’s all dead wet leaves, fresh new pens and paper, the subtle stress of obligations, and the faint excitement of a new semester. (Click here to buy it from Morphius.)

Elsewhere: Does anyone out there happen to have a bootleg recording of this wedding reception? YSI?

8/17/07

We Dance Around These Sleepy Rhymes

Marnie Stern “Put All Your Eggs In One Basket And Then Watch That Basket!!!” – It sounds like a band tumbling down a flight of stairs or a girly punk band fighting a wind storm, but lately, this is the song I put on when I want to feel calm. It’s like being in the eye of a hurricane, maybe. Stern’s arrangements are like meticulously crafted chaos — it spins around you, pulls you in every direction, but even when it feels like disorienting madness, there’s comfort and safety in the knowledge that every moment is organized and under control. (Click here to buy it from Kill Rock Stars.)

These Are Powers “Little Sisters Of Beijing” – The singing is passionate and intense, but it’s nearly overpowered by an incessant grayish electronic tone that sounds less like a proper instrument and more like the ambient hum of office machines and fluorescent lights. She sounds desperate and trapped, but also powerless and overwhelmed. The thing is, her voice is the one thing keeping that grim, oppressive tone from feeling like a source of strange comfort. (Click here for the These Are Powers MySpace page.)

Elsewhere: People playing chess on rollercoasters.

8/16/07

On A Clear Day I Can Read Your Mind

Rilo Kiley “Give A Little Love” – The most appealing thing about Rilo Kiley’s new album is that they’ve totally surrendered to their least cool influences in a way that seems totally natural and sincere, and not even a little bit glib or ironic. The production is immaculate, and every track, whether it’s a nod to Linda Ronstadt-esque country pop, gooey teen drama balladry, cheesy riff rock, or the whole late 70s coke-fueled “California” aesthetic sounds silky, smooth, and set to impress the sort of people indie rock types usually loathe the most — you know, like “tampon rock” fans and moms. Though some of the numbers hew closer to the (actually quite square) sound of their previous record, the best cuts dive into the deep end and come out stronger because it’s just so clear that the group is either living out some sort of fantasy, or simply being themselves. “Give A Little Love” sounds like a sparkly synth ballad from a late 80s teen pop record that’s been given a slight make-over by Jenny Lewis. The song can’t help but feel a bit dorky, but she plays it very straight, and fully embraces the direct, unguarded sentimentality of the style to great effect, while also drawing on the warm, soupy quasi-R&B backing vocals that complemented her well on her solo album. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

Elsewhere: My new Hit Refresh column is up on the ASAP site with mp3s from the Thai Pop Spectacular, Who Needs Tomorrow, and Joe Meek Freakbeat compilations.

8/15/07

It’s Called Electric Guitar!

Prints “Easy Magic” – I’m not exactly against people putting their music in ads. It’s tacky, but people have got to make a living, you know? It’s exceptionally rare that an advertisement taints a song that I already love — I’m kinda stubborn that way, if I like something it’s almost impossible for me to change my mind about it — and so I only really hate it when songs I dislike end up in ads that I end up hearing all the time. (Perfect example: Remember when “One Week” by the Barenaked Ladies was in that car ad, and it’d be on all the time, pretty much every episode of Conan O’Brien for a year back when no one had tivo? That was very painful.) I also dislike how a large chunk of music now is either music from ads, or music that will eventually be in an ad. This song by Prints has a hook that is incredibly crisp, lovely and instantly ingratiating, and so it’s hard to imagine that it won’t be featured in an ad campaign for something or other within a year, especially since it has this sound that sorta quietly whispers “I am smart, stylish, and casual.” Maybe it won’t, maybe no one will be interested, or maybe Prints would refuse, but either way, it still has that vibe, and it’s not even their fault. This is probably how the big companies win — eventually everything we hear will in some way make us think of some totally unrelated product. (Click here for the Prints MySpace page.)

Home Blitz “Hey!” – How’s this for a perfect, brilliant punk rock moment: The band is playing this immediately catchy power pop tune, and the lyrics are very silly but right on. Just after he admits that his guitar cannot “express many different emotions,” the singer stops the song abruptly so that he can “get some gum.” A few seconds later, they kick right back into the tune, but not exactly at the point where they left off. And then — a sweet, sentimental guitar solo that sharply contrasts with the shambling quality of everything else on the track. I don’t exactly endorse everyone taking gum breaks in the middle of their studio recordings, but man, if only every band could sound this alive and present on their albums. (Click here to buy it from Gulcher Records.)

8/14/07

I’m So In Love With The Music!

Junior Senior @ High Line Ballroom 8/13/2007
Go Junior Go Senior / Chicks and Dicks / Dynamite / Good Girl, Bad Guy / Rhythm Bandits / Happy Rap / Itch U Can’t Scratch / We R The Handclaps / Can I Get Get Get (with JD from Le Tigre) / Move Your Feet / Shake Me Baby / Shake Your Coconuts / Hip Hop A Lula // You Cannot Trust… / White Trash

Junior Senior “We R The Handclaps” – Okay, so here’s the thing. Junior Senior came out and played a great set — high energy, great crowd, wonderful songs. I really want to emphasize that last one, because it seems to me that people get so overwhelmed by their kitsch and extreme cheeriness that they tend to overlook that they are rather fantastic songwriters with an amazing gift for melody and elegant arrangements that are probably very carefully crafted, but sound totally natural. But the thing is…they kinda dropped the ball on the encore. Instead of coming out and ending the show with the best song from each of their records — “Take My Time” and “Boy Meets Girl” — they played a sorta repetitive new tune and the weakest track from their debut album. (Insert frowny face here.) The encore didn’t totally suck, and it didn’t exactly ruin the show, but yeeeee, that was no way to end a gig! They should’ve at least saved “Move Your Feet” or “Shake Your Coconuts” til the very end! Also, the fact that Cindy and Kate from the B52s were not on hand was no excuse not to do “Take My Time,” by the way — the girl who sang lead on “We R The Handclaps” was absolutely amazing, and she would’ve totally killed it on that song!

But don’t get me wrong, this was a really fun show. Also, don’t get me started about Gravy Train, who opened up and may be the single most puerile band on the face of the earth. Take that as a complaint or as a compliment, and either way you’re right. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

8/13/07

A Natural Fact

The Mary Timony Band “Killed By The Telephone” – There’s a problem here, and no problem at all. The “problem” is that if you’ve heard a lot of Mary Timony’s music from after The Dirt Of Luck, you can predict this song’s movements from second to second — she’s operating on instinct, not so much imagination, and even the best moments feel like something you’ve heard from her several times before. However, if you’ve heard a lot of Timony’s post-Dirt Of Luck music, you probably like her style, and “Killed By The Telephone” sounds like a new old friend, or maybe even a step up from most of what she’s been doing in the past few years if just because it straight-up rocks out when it’s not floating off into a sea of arpeggiation. I guess I can’t stop myself from wishing she was re-writing “XXX” and “Pat’s Trick” instead of The Magic City, but that’s my problem and not hers. (Click here to buy it from Buy Olympia.)

C.O.C.O. “Your Own Secret Way / Sly” – The singer is hung up on someone, and so everything that person says or does seems like a code to crack, or a path to an answer — yes, no, maybe? This person is occupying so much space in her brain that she hopes and assumes that she’s weighing heavily on their mind as well, but the possibility that she’s wrong just makes it worse. (In other words: you should pay rent in my mind / say like the French say / “bon soir je regret a demain” / do you like me? / do you like me? / do you like me? / do you like me? / I guess.) (Click here to pre-order it from K Records.)

Elsewhere: R.I.P., Mike Weiringo.

8/10/07

Music’s Got Me Feeling So Free

Daft Punk @ Keyspan Park 8/9/2007
Robot Rock + Oh Yeah + Technologic / Television Rules The Nation + Around The World + Cresdendolls / Steam Machine / Harder Better Faster Stronger + Around The World / Burnin’ / Too Long / Face To Face + Harder Better Faster Stronger / One More Time + Aerodynamic / The Prime Time Of Your Life / Alive / Brainwasher / Da Funk + Daftendirekt / Superheroes + Human After All // Together + One More Time (approximate setlist, may be slightly inaccurate)

Daft Punk “Face To Face” – How do you talk about a show like this without gushing with hyperbole, or inadvertently making it sound dull by translating an immersive visceral, physical experience into a bunch of stupid words? Daft Punk’s show is the opposite of words, basically. If you want to get an idea of what the performance was like, watch these YouTube clips, but keep in mind that they really don’t capture the full sensation, and I can’t seem to find examples of some of the most stunning bits of the light show:

Daft Punk’s show is essentially a fusion of crowd-pleasing, disco dancing spectacle and high concept installation art. Every moment is precisely calculated to maximize the audience’s pleasure, and their submission to the moment. Though the set was mostly high energy, they allowed for several cool-down moments in which the duo gave the audience permission to slow down and get lost in the visuals before pulling them back with another round of intense beats.

It’s kinda amazing how incredibly thrilling it can be to see guys dressed like robots dancing around in a giant glowing pyramid. It’s a simple pleasure, really.

Though it seemed that everyone was most excited to hear the classic songs from Discovery, the tracks from Human After All were a revelation in the context of a large scale performance. It’s not too much of a surprise that their “rock” songs would go over well in an arena setting, but the raw excitement triggered by the likes of “Technologic” and “Television Rules The Nation” was enough to question why that album received such poor reviews a few years ago. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

Elsewhere & Related: Take a look inside Daft Punk’s pyramid, learn how to make your own customized LED robot helmet, and behold the ecstatic comments thread on Brooklyn Vegan.

The Rapture @ Keyspan Park 8/9/2007
Down For So Long / Get Myself Into It / Sister Savior / The Devil / Pieces of the People We Love / Whoo! Alright – Yeah…Uh Huh / House of Jealous Lovers / Don Gon Do It / First Gear (aborted midway after keyboard failure) / Olio

The Rapture “First Gear” – I’d been really hoping to see the Rapture do “First Gear,” and until some damnable keyboard gave out in the second minute, my wish had been granted. On an album of instantly ingratiating songs, “First Gear” is a slow burner, the one that pulls you deeper and deeper if you just let go. (Weirdly, even though I’ve heard the song a few dozen times now, I always seem to expect Matty to start singing the chorus of “Warning Siren” when he shifts into the “can I ask you a question?” section.)

The Rapture were fantastic — they always are — but their songs work better in smaller places, and situations in which everyone there is there to see them. As it was, there were plenty of folks on the floor flipping out to their songs, along with pockets of people who were just waiting around for the robots. Fair enough, fun enough, but it wasn’t anything near as intense as their show at Webster Hall last year. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

8/9/07

Different Levels Of The Devil’s Company

Tricky “Ponderosa” – Though it’s not exactly rare for couples to collaborate on music together, nearly all of the tracks produced by Tricky featuring Martina Topley-Bird on vocals foreground what would normally be subtext to the point that the sexual tension present in their work seems overwhelming and contagious. Some of this is due to the contrasting character of their voices — Tricky has a thick, creepy rasp that implies a seductive sort of alien otherness, and Martina is elegant, coy, and slightly demure in a way that suggests that she’s an innocent young girl who is slowly being corrupted by his unapologetic decadence. Though Tricky has worked with other female vocalists with a similar vocal range and timbre, none of them can come close to replicating their unique chemistry, or mimicking the subtleties of her phrasing. For example, there’s a dark, flirtatious wit in her performance on “Ponderosa” that twists a song that might otherwise be taken a self-pitying lament about one’s vices into something that underlines the pleasures of self-medication and self-destruction. Her presence on the track opens up the song’s interior monologue just enough to make it a shared experience, shifting its “I” to an exclusive “we” cut off from the outside world.

“Ponderosa” is a perfect early example of one of Tricky’s most common approaches to presenting vocals: As Martina sings a fairly conventional lead part, he shadows and/or anticipates her words with scratchy, rhythmic whispers. There’s a few different ways to interpret this style, and they aren’t the least bit mutually exclusive:

1) He’s placing a spotlight on his role as a svengali type who is putting his words into the mouth of his beautiful, young female protege. In calling attention to this, he is highlighting a sort of artifice or vocal inadequacy that can be perceived as a flaw while also arrogantly making sure that the listener is aware of his authorship.

2) He’s creating a dynamic between the male and female voices that lends a richer subtext to the work. Her vocal part can be understood as an act of submission to his will, but the result is invariably a track in which the female voice sounds confident and fully expressive, and the male voice seems sickly and weak. Tricky plays up his masculinity, but he almost always seems repulsed by it on some level, and so puts himself in the context of a gorgeous female voice in order to both highlight his flaws, and compensate for them. The women in his songs are placed on a pedestal — even when he’s cursing them out, his self-loathing trumps his persecution complex.

3) He’s splitting the song into two interlocking perspectives. Both of the characters are thinking the same thing, and on some level, one is most certainly parroting the other but is either unaware, or simply unsure where they end and the other person begins. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

Tricky “Vent” – On Maxinquaye, “Suffocated Love” was a metaphor, but the opening track of Pre-Millenium Tension takes that phrase very, very literally with its lyrics about a woman who hides her lover’s asthma medication as a sadistic ploy to gain the upper hand in their relationship and/or profit from his demise. The song is sung from both perspectives, so the track alternates between Tricky’s paranoid delusion and Martina’s bitter revenge fantasy. The track is dense and claustrophobic, with its smothering beats implying the couple’s stifling proximity to one another, and its anguished, heavily distorted guitar noise standing in for Tricky’s muted screams. It’s worth noting that the song inverts the usual Tricky formula, and Martina speaks her words just before singing them, as though to clarify that she’s taking full credit for her actions. The result is very chilling, but also sexy in a very intense and unnerving sort of way. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

Elsewhere: My new Hit Refresh column is up on the ASAP site with mp3s from Michael Dracula, Tiny Vipers, and Edie Sedgwick.

Also: There’s a wonderful video feature about the Fiery Furnaces on NewMusicBox that places the band in the context of “new music” as opposed to indie rock.

8/7/07

Tomorrow Tomorrow Today

Midnight Juggernauts “Shadows” – “Shadows” might be a song about something. There’s words, and there is singing, but it’s all secondary to the simple snap of the beat, the relaxed bounce of the bass line, and these breezy, colorful synth parts that just sort of float through you. The song makes you passive, but it’s not the sort of tune that picks you up and throws you around. You just go with it, and it takes you someplace nice where it’s hot enough to be acutely aware of your body, but cool enough to chill you out. (Click here to buy it via Midnight Juggernauts’ MySpace page.)

Liars “Freak Out” – I’ve had a lot to freak out about recently, but it’s…okay. It’s okay, I guess. And that’s what this song feels like — oppressive heat and humidity melting worries into little ice cream puddles, nervousness mutating into boneheaded confidence because you’re too lazy to be self-aware, and the sort of dumb luck that only comes when you are not trying, at all. (I wonder if the Liars only gave themselves permission to write this sort of perfect zoned-out surf rock song because The OC is off the air now. I’m kinda serious.) (Click here to pre-order it from Amazon.)

Elsewhere: While the Nouvelle Vague chanteuses crooned in the background, I suffered through a clumsy fondling session that wouldn’t have been even note-worthy in the tenth grade. Except for the part where he looked at me lustily and said “you know… I have Jake Shears’ number in my phone.”

8/6/07

We Both Get What We Ask For

Jay Reatard “I Know A Place” – In other words — we all need our space, but we also need each other. We can have it both ways if we try, and if you want to try. It’s a simple thought, and a simple song, but Jay Reatard’s voice conveys the complicated tangle of emotions that get in the way of something that seems so easy in the abstract. (Click here for the Jay Reatard MySpace page.)

Freezepop “Do You Like Boys?” – “Do You Like Boys?” is almost stiflingly twee, but once Liz Enthusiasm takes the song to its chorus, her lyrics take a creepy turn, and it definitely seems as though she’s asking her suitor if he prefers “boys” and “sweet little girls” to her in a very literal To Catch A Predator sort of way. The song gets kinda uncomfortable after that first chorus, but the gentle tweaking of twee infantilization results in a richer, more sinister pop tune. (Click here for the official Freezepop page.)

8/3/07

Let’s Get To It, Relax

Supermayer “The Art of Letting Go” – No, this is not John Mayer’s dance pop side project — you’re thinking of Benny Benassi, actually. (No kidding, it’s kind of a public secret.) Supermayer is Superpitcher and Michael Mayer, arguably the two biggest stars on the Kompakt roster forming like Voltron (or at least the Wonder Twins) for an entire album’s worth of…well, I don’t know what you should call this stuff, to be honest with you. It’s not really “minimal techno” since a majority of the tracks veer closer to pop songwriting and/or funk than what you might normally expect from a Kompakt release. “The Art of Letting Go” builds on a thick yet surprisingly light bass line with a repetitive deadpan vocal hook, distant bleating horns, and a recurring guitar sample that in context seems like the one nagging thought in the back of your head that keeps your mind from being clear and fully relaxed. (Click here to pre-order it from Soul Seduction.)

Elsewhere: My new Hit Refresh column is up on the ASAP site with mp3s from the Dirty Projectors, Yesterday’s New Quintet, and Karl Blau.

Also: My review of I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry is up on The Movie Binge. It’s a truly terrible film, but this is probably my favorite review I’ve done for that site this summer.

8/2/07

The Teeth Marks Of Time

Interpol “No I In Threesome” – I wish the intro of this song was a bit longer, maybe another 30-40 seconds. The opening moments sets up a rather interesting and deliberately cinematic theme that could carry an entire track, but it gets immediately sidelined by the main body of the piece. That’s not an entirely bad thing — aside from the too-brief intro segment, “No I In Threesome” is perhaps the most fully realized and sophisticated composition in Interpol’s discography, or at least on par with previous highlights such as “Evil,” “Not Even Jail,” and “NYC.” The thing that’s difficult to understand is why the rest of the tracks on Our Love To Admire seem so tossed-off and forgettable in comparison. Did the group put all of its effort into this one cut? It could be. Whereas the other tracks on the album come off muddy and indistinct, “Threesome” is graceful and dynamic, gently drawing the listener through sections that balance a nervous tension with a sort of creepy, self-absorbed sexuality that is borne out in Paul Banks’ lyrics.

Though previous Interpol songs have hinted at the follies of its dim hipster protagonists, this one is most successfully in drawing out a specific scenario rather than imply a character with a loose, cryptic lyrical sketch. Banks’ character here is most certainly an opportunistic creep, but the implication is that he’s lacking in self-awareness. He proposes a threesome as a way of breathing new life into a dying relationship, but he’s really just trying to get his way, and introducing a scenario that might finally kill off a situation he’s too cowardly to abandon straight away. His logic is nonsensical, but you just know the manipulative bastard will get his way. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

Superthriller “I Love You” – Superthriller’s inarticulate, disingenuous declaration of love is a very thin joke, but it holds up well in a thumping, threadbare track that nods and winks in the general direction of soft pop and white boy R&B that works despite its self-conscious irony. If you’re sympathetic to its Lite FM signifiers, the song is a bit like eating an ice cream sundae in an air conditioned space on a hot, humid afternoon. Also, the “like Tom Cruise, but better” line is very funny, mainly because it’s hard to imagine who would still want to be that guy at this point in history. (Click here for the Superthriller MySpace page.)

8/1/07

Life Is Beautiful Though Surreal At Times

Onuma Singsiri “Mae Kha Som Tum (Papaya Salad Merchant)” – The title translation of this track from Sublime Frequencies’ new Thai Pop Spectacular compilation may be one of the less amusing/interesting — how could it not when compared to the likes of “You Should Die By Bullets,” “Look Whose Underwear Is Showing,” “We Both Think We’re The Best!,” and “Drinking Whiskey Til I’m Blurred”? — but the song itself is probably the best, and most certainly the selection that exemplifies the sort of dark, dank, humid grooves that dominate the record. “Mae Kha Som Tum” feels a bit eerie and detached, but entirely present in the moment, at least in a physical sense. The mind…well, that seems distracted, hypnotized, staring off into the middle distance. (Click here to buy it from Sublime Frequencies.)

Tiny Vipers “Shipwreck” – Jesy Fortino’s voice occasionally recalls the pained quaver of Sunny Day Real Estate’s Jeremy Enigk, but she’s not nearly as unhinged or bombastic. Like much of her debut album as Tiny Vipers, the music of “Shipwreck” is so sparse and subtle that it does not fully register on the first listen, but close attention reveals a brittle, heartbreaking tune that struggles to make sense of random tragedy, and to rationalize the desire to carry on and survive. (Click here to buy it from Sub Pop.)

Elsewhere: Nate Patrin rewrote the entirety of the Clash’s London Calling as a series of limericks!

7/31/07

You’ve Lost What You Could’ve Had

Michael Dracula “Please Don’t Take This The Wrong Way” – Emily MacLaren never actually utters the title phrase in this song, but every other line sounds as though it’s already been prefaced with that nerve-wracking disclaimer. I realize that we’re supposed to identify with her, but I keep wondering how this guy is supposed to take getting dressed down like this? I take the title as a bit of a joke — she totally knows that she’s tearing some serious holes in this guy’s ego, but she’s sweetening it up, and trying very hard to convince herself that she’s being a good person when it’s clear there’s a bit of deliberate emotional sadism in what she’s doing. Would this song sound so laid back and playful otherwise? (Click here to buy it from Ze Records.)

Marmoset “(Heavy Breathing) On The Telephone” – I’d never heard of Marmoset before a week ago, but they are among the first in a long line of “Hey, you like 90s indie, right? You should listen to this one local act…” bands that I anticipate encountering over the next decade or so as the period is distant enough to warrant more reissues and compilations. Marmoset — who still exist, by the way, and have a new album out now — specialize in concise, somewhat lethargic songs that emphasize stark rhythms, stressed and tinny lead guitar lines, and vocals that most often convey a sense of helpless indecision. They are the type of band who are not only willing to indulge in a silly “a rye/awry” pun, but also to repeat it a few times over the course of a two minute song, which is far more endearing to me than contemporary acts who strain to be described as “literate.” (Click here to get Marmoset’s “greatest hits” for free from Secretly Canadian.)

7/30/07

Forget The Past And Just Say Yes

Sonic Youth @ McCarren Pool 7/28/2007
Teenage Riot / Silver Rocket / The Sprawl / Cross The Breeze / Eric’s Trip / Total Trash / Hey Joni / Providence / Candle / Rain King / Kissability / The Wonder / Hyperstation / Eliminator Jr. // Incinerate / Reena / Do You Believe In Rapture? / What A Waste /// Jams Run Free / Pink Steam

I saw Sonic Youth perform Daydream Nation in its entirety twice in the span of a couple weeks, and if you really want to know, the first time in Chicago was better. Specifically, it was better for me — I’m not sure if I can actually compare the performances in any meaningful way because I was so much more emotionally involved the first time around, in part because I was alone in the middle of a crowd of people who responded with so much joy and passion that it couldn’t help but be a more visceral experience. (In comparison, the Brooklyn audience was…well, a Brooklyn audience, i.e. “extremely psyched in their own way,” as my friend very charitably put it.) The Chicago set was very special for me, not simply because the band were playing a lot of songs that I loved, and several selections that I never had the opportunity to witness live, but because I was connecting with songs in unexpected ways. In particular, “Eric’s Trip” suddenly felt like a decade and a half of memories colliding head-on with my future, and “Jams Run Free” was the saddest, happiest, loneliest, most romantic thing I’d ever heard. Both of those songs were played in Brooklyn too, and though I enjoyed them quite a bit, there was no recapturing that perfect, spontaneous emotional reaction.

(I should note that in both performances of “Eric’s Trip,” Lee Ranaldo omitted some words in the same spaces — for example, he sang “I’m over the city, fucking the future,” but “I’m high and inside your kiss” was gone — and added new lines before the “I see with a glass eye, the pavement view” verse, something very close to this: “The sky is blue / the sky is the deepest, darkest blue I’ve ever seen / and points on a globe / are just points on a globe.” It’s interesting to me that after performing the song so many times over the years, he still seems to be revising it, much more like a poet than a rock singer.)

Sonic Youth “Hey Joni” (Live in 1988) -This is not to say that the McCarren set was a disappointment, or inferior, or that I didn’t connect. “Candle” was certainly better this time around, maybe the best performance of that song I’d ever seen. Though Chicago got a much more inspired improvised mid-section of “Silver Rocket” and a seriously intense take on “Cross The Breeze,” Brooklyn had the luck of getting more polished renditions of “The Sprawl,” “Total Trash,” and “The Wonder.” “Hey Joni” was my jam, the thing that clicked perfectly, and seemed to make sense of the nostalgic nature of the show with its rapid burst of words presenting a timeline like a shoelace tied into a knot. 1988 was 1995 was 2002 was 2007 and 2012. Emotions, books, outlooks on life. Hello 2015! Hello 2015! (Oh wait, that’s another song.) (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

The Slits “Love Und Romance” – I arrived a little bit too late, and as I approached the gates, I noticed that the Slits were already on, and were playing my favorite song in their catalog, “Love Und Romance.” It was fun to see them once I got in and close to the stage, but it’s a shame I missed so much of it — there were some newer songs I didn’t know too well, and after Ari Up (dressed up like a Rastafarian cheerleader!) announced that they were about to play the song everyone had been waiting for, they performed “Typical Girls,” which was fantastic, but uh…not “I Heard It Through The Grapevine.” Did they already play “Grapevine”? I’d love to know.

Ah, “Love Und Romance”! My trusty mix tape staple! My favorite manic, cheerfully unreasonable lust song! The twisting, the turning, the giggles and chants! And the bass! It is permanently swirling around in the back of my head, surfacing in the strangest, blankest moments. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

7/27/07

When I’m In My Room And It’s Late At Night

Steely Dan “Through With Buzz”

Colin: Matthew, tell me why you liked “Through With Buzz.”

me: Well, there’s a lot of things I like about it. I like that it’s really concise, for one thing. I like how strings are the central part of the song, but the string arrangement implies a rock guitar sound instead of something self-conciously “classy.” But then again, there IS a sort of fake, put-on classiness in it, implying that the guy thinks he’s this big shot. I like the way it conveys this sort of oblivious macho insecurity.

Colin: It’s a pretty funny song. Do you like Pretzel Logic?

me: Yeah, that’s definitely my favorite Steely Dan album. I really love “Parker’s Band” too.

Colin: But the song “Pretzel Logic,” a couple of tracks later. I find it thematically similar, even though it’s kind of nonsense.

me: Are you in a big Dan phase? you should talk to my friend Eric, he’s a huge Steely Dan fan. I’m pretty casual about it, I just really like some of their songs here and there.

Colin: Naw, I was just listening to it last night, and I know every second of it by heart because my mom used to listen to them.

me: My friend Jody gave me a proper introduction to Steely Dan back in 2002, made me a cd but I only really liked “Through With Buzz” right away.

Colin: It’s easy to be put off by their jazz-dude rep.

me: Yeah, but now I think it’s one of their better aspects.

Colin: It’s a put-on! It’s part of the weird, humorless joke. They are so anti-jazz! Nothing is improvised.

me: Yeah, they are more about CHOPS. That’s what they take from jazz, not fluidity and intuition.

Colin : Donald Fagen and that other guy are the Shao Lin of jazz.

me: Their take on jazz is kinda postmodern maybe, because they are only interested in jazz recordings, the signifiers of jazz rather than jazz itself.

(Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

Elsewhere: I’m going to be a guest writer on Idolator today. Check it out.


©2008 Fluxblog
Site by Ryan Catbird